Como fought hard for their second consecutive Serie A victory with a Patrick Cutrone brace and Andrea Belotti, but Verona were furious at the controversial Tomas Suslov dismissal.
Cesc Fabregas was fresh off his first Serie A victory, a shock 3-2 result away to Atalanta. Hellas lost two on the bounce to Lazio and Torino, with Pawel Dawidowicz starting his two-match ban, Suat Serdar, Abdou Harroui and Juan Manuel Cruz injured.
See how it unfolded on the Liveblog.
Ignace van der Brempt had timid early penalty appeals, but went down too easily when he felt a touch from Darko Lazovic.
Alberto Moreno’s left-foot scorcher from distance was palmed over the bar and Nico Paz saw his cross-shot deflected onto the side-netting from the tightest of angles.
Lorenzo Montipò made a spectacular reaction save from close range on the Nico Paz header, then denied Alberto Moreno’s half-volley, but was grateful to see Sergi Roberto fire wide after a well-worked Como move.
Verona had the ball in the net against the run of play with Casper Tengstedt, but he was offside on the volley at the back post.
Montipò continued to perform heroics on another Nico Paz free header, so the only way he could be beaten was with a massive deflection off Jackson Tchatchoua on the Patrick Cutrone curler, looping it over the helpless goalkeeper.
Straight after the restart, there was chaos when first penalty appeals were ignored for the Sergi Roberto challenge on Darko Lazovic, then Como countered and Nico Paz thumped the near post. However, VAR confirmed Sergi Roberto had trodden on Lazovic’s boot, so the same player converted the penalty.
Lazovic had the chance to turn it around moments later, firing the volley into the stands when unmarked from 14 yards, while Montipò denied Cutrone at the near post.
There was another twist when Tomas Suslov received a rather harsh second yellow card, as he seemed to be in a 50-50 situation with Alieu Fadera at the touchline.
Cutrone restored Como’s lead when running on to an inspired Nico Paz slide-rule pass and smashing in from the edge of the area.
Montipò needed another save on Real Madrid youth product Nico Paz, but Emil Audero got down quickly to push the Ondrej Duda free kick off the line, as it was drilled under the jumping wall.
Como made sure when Montipò parried an initial effort and Luca Mazzitelli generously nodded down the Da Cunha cross for Andrea Belotti’s first Serie A goal in this jersey.
Despite being down to 10 men, Verona did not give in and Mathis Lambourde squirmed a finish through a crowd into the near bottom corner.
Daniel Mosquera threatened an equaliser on the counter-attack, denied by some desperate defending.
Como 3-2 Verona
Cutrone 43, 72 (C), Lazovic pen 53 (V), Belotti 89 (C), Lambourde 94 (V)
Sent off: Suslov 64 (V)
Player statistic
| Patrick Cutrone |  |
44' |
| 48' |  |
Reda Belahyane | ||
| Sergi Roberto | |
52' | ||
| 53' |  |
Darko Lazovic | ||
| 61' | |
Tomas Suslov | ||
| 64' |  |
Tomas Suslov | ||
| Patrick Cutrone (Assist: Nico Paz) |
|
72' | ||
| 75' | |
Diego Coppola | ||
| Máximo Perrone | |
81' | ||
| 84' | |
Daniel Mosquera | ||
| Andrea Belotti (Assist: Luca Mazzitelli) |
|
89' | ||
| 90+4' | |
Mathis Lambourde (Assist: Jackson Tchatchoua) |
